Background: This is the third in a series of blog posts about Mark Levin’s excellent and inspiring book, The Liberty Amendments. I hope to convey Levin's major messages and inspire others to engage in the Convention of States (COS) project and join its underlying and growing grass-roots movement to restore liberty and self-governance. I also hope to inspire you to read this book. The prior article in the series summarizes Levin’s arguments for calling a Convention of States under Article V of the Constitution, his sense of urgency for doing so now, and how the process works.
Chapter 2 of Levin’s bestselling book describes the first proposed liberty amendment: term limits. Time in office equals power, and it must be curtailed. DC will never reduce its power or limit itself.
This is well known and an immutable part of human nature through all of human history and civilizations, as Levin described in Chapter 1. Two sections are proposed:
- “No person may serve more than twelve years as a member of Congress, whether such service is exclusively in the House or the Senate or combined in both Houses."
- “Upon ratification of this Article, any incumbent member of Congress whose term exceeds the twelve-year limit shall complete the current term, but thereafter shall be ineligible for further service as a member of Congress.”
Often prescient and an astute observer of immutable human nature was Benjamin Franklin. He was the primary author of the Pennsylvania constitution which had term limits. Levin quotes him when addressing the Constitutional Convention on June 2, just days after it convened.
“Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money. Separately each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men, a post of honour that shall be at the same time a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it.”
Paraphrasing Levin, the nation’s Founders believed in the concept of a “citizen/servant”, not a professional political class who seek and retain the corrupting influence of power and money. A citizen servant is someone who has a life and a career in the private sector, but who offered experience and talents to public service for a limited time (i.e. term limits, self-imposed), and then returned to private life. In many cases government officials, including representatives and senators, actually kept active in their private sector vocation during their tenure in public office, dividing time between the two areas of life. Returning to a business as an entrepreneur in the private sector after public service was considered an upgrade in stature.
Through fact after fact, Levin demonstrates that incumbency has become the main determinant in winning elections. This means that We the People “voting the bums out” in Congress, despite their perennial, dismal, approval ratings ranging between 15 and 20%, does not, has not, and cannot work. Objectors to term limits argue that they are not needed and are redundant due to regular elections. However, the facts speak for themselves, per Levin. After 1901 and for the first time, the average number of terms served by House members rose above two (two-year) terms. Since then, turnover has become very low: from 50% in the latter half of the 19th century, to a mere 20% in the 21st century. In 2008, when Barack Obama was first elected president, reelection rates in the House were 94%, and 83% in the Senate. In the 2010 elections, a supposed Republican tidal wave, 85% of incumbents from both parties were reelected. This pattern has repeated for decades; see Open Secrets’ reelection rate tracker for one of many. And what happens once Congress members take office? They enrich themselves tremendously; see this study.
Lack of term limits at many levels of government is a stark illustration of the corrupting and perverting influence of power. It also illustrates how the electorate’s wishes are ignored. Among We the People, polling and grassroots civic movements indicate that support for term limits is nonpartisan and nearly ubiquitous – far beyond a super majority, so to speak. Yet the majority of politicians, who are a far cry from citizen servants and who purportedly represent us, have not, do not, and will not limit their own power, influence, or political careers through term limits. Arguments for term limits shine a bright light on how misaligned they are with the will and desires of We the People.
Term limits is one of the three pillars of COS resolution. It is and remains exceedingly popular among We the People, hovering around 80%. Other movements and groups are also strong proponents for a variety of reasons, including US Term Limits and several term limit Political Action Committees (PACs). Here in North Carolina during the 2023-2024 session, in addition to the State House passing the COS resolution HJR 235, they also passed HJR 151, “Term Limits for Congress”. Expanding beyond Congress is also desirable and popular among We the People. For example, 75% of people want term limits on Supreme Court Justices. So the Section 1 of the COS resolution goes further, opening the possibility during a convention for commissioners to propose amendments to limit terms of other government officials: “..., and limit terms of office for its [federal government] officials and for members of Congress.”
Please read Levin’s book for more of the fascinating historical foundation and current rationale for the need for term limits. And, sign the petition and consider volunteering to join the strong and growing COS grassroots movement. Your fellow Americans need you and your State Legislature to check politicians and government officials, as the Constitution intends, and that clearly they will not do themselves.
